Design question

[kevin11]

If you are listing a few hundred entries, in a scrolling field or datagrid say, is it better for the user's experience that I list entries alphabetically across columns, or down coloumns ?

That is :

A B C D
E F G H
I J K L

or

A D G J
B E H K
C F I L

Does anybody care ?
If so, and people don't agree with each other, that would make it grounds for a user determined preference to be available perhaps ?

Thoughts ?

Thanks.

[Klaus]

Hi Kevin,

this heavily depends on the data, a list of NAMES e.g. should per default be sorted down columns of course!
And yes, a preference for this would be a nice addition


Best

Klaus

[kevin11]

Sorting downwards was my first choice. But I believe there may be an issue with screen readers, which will read from left to right ?

and yes, make it all a preference, I have found as a good rule of thumb if I am not sure what will be best for the user, make it a preference !

It also has just occurred to me that if there are hundreds of names, another solution is to have an alphabetic strip across the top so you can at least filter by letter, with unpopulated letters greyed out.

Thanks for the reply.

[Klaus]

Hi Kevin,

yes, or supply a "serach field" on top of the list which filters the list when entering character(s).


Best

Klaus